GDG- Killing Lincoln

Your BTW question is excellent and highly provocative.
It's actually pretty fascinating to the point of addiction.
My interest began in the early 1970s when my family moved to DC and I
visited Fords for the first time.
In 1990 I volunteered for a short stretched at Fords (No ghosts).
93 I became a licensed DC tourguide and began doing bus tours of the
assassination. At first I leaned towards Booth being more insane than
clearheaded and calculating.
I had to answer a lot of questions. While I was tempted to make up fun
stories I tried my best to give an honest answer.
My Golden Rule in doing tours is to treat the guest/visitors/tourists in a
reverse situation. What would I want to hear from the guide if I was the
tourist?
I am embarassed to say that once I forgot and told the tourists they could
see the carvings in the plaster where Booth stuck his door bar. The
museum has been rebuilt. How stupid of me.
Anyway, as I read and researched more I don't think Booth was any more
insane than me, which is the best standard I can give.
But NOTE: BOOTH was not the first to think of it. Even before coming to
DC Lincoln got threats in the mail on an almost constant basis.
After 18 years of professional research I side with the assassinaton being
a cancelled kidnapping attempt in a last Hail Mary effort to disturb the
Union gov't at the end of the war by decapitation.
BUT I also think there were 100s of plots over the years to assassinate
Lincoln.
Some can be researched in " real history" books like James O. Hall's et
all book "Come Retribution".
Some are speculative. I think from Day 1 Jeff Davis et all spoke without
being on the record about killing Lincoln. It naturally would be an option.
And individuals made their own meager efforts usually coming to naught or
chickening out.
In Come Retribution after the Dahlgren/Kilpatrick raid occurred the
Southern high command no longer ruled out Black Flag warfare- attacking the
head-of-state. The South delivered clothing contaminated by Yellow Fever to the
W House. Being conveyed by mosquitoes this didn't work but those kinds of
efforts being made are significant. (Just so you know, mosquitos can't
carry a lot of clothes. Joke!)
The Tayloes were founding fathers of DC. The Octogon House was the W
House for the Madisons after the W House was burned. Tayloe's son built a
house 2 doors down from the house where Seward was nearly killed. In
Retribution Hall goes into it a bit. Apparently it was a safe house for spies on
Lafayette Square. On their escape Booth and Herold hid for 2 days at the
Nanjemoy plantation on the Pot R of the Hughes family who were related to the
Tayloes and well known to Davcy Herold who'd been there before many times.
Way cool!
I think the name was a Thomas or Joseph Conrad, a spy sent up from Jeff
Davis. He would stay at the Tayloe House on L Sq. and hide behind trees
while he watched A.L. walk to the War dept.
So Booth's attempt of only one of many and the only one pulled off and
actually quite successful.
Your Most Obedient Servant,
Peter
P.S. Believe what you want. I don't make this stuff up.
In a message dated 1/14/2012 9:02:53 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jlawrence at kc.rr.com writes:
Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
Bruce,
Yes I did. I tried harder than you.
I read all this and more.
I chose chose not to ape the marketing side of the house.
FYI: have a copy of protagonist Lafayette C. Bakers book, "United States
Secret Service".
It is one of those delghtfull books, reprinted in the 1890's, with old,
fragile yellow pages that the edges crumble.
I paid 120.00 dollars for it.
I keep it in a plastic bag and have not opened it for these 12 years,
after
reading the Lincoln chapters.
It is available for less than two bucks now on Amazon, Kindle and Nook.
Damn.
It is a great primary source, and certainly better than the treacle in
discussion.
OTOH, anything that tunes someone into history is better than nothing.
Regards,
Jack
I took the road less traveled, and it has made all the difference.
BTW: Was Booth really stopped from attacking lincoln at the second
inaugaral Inaugaration, as portrayed in the book?
>From EN Bookstores:
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Burk" <jlb4tlb at yahoo.com>
To: "GDG" <gettysburg at arthes.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2012 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: GDG- Killing Lincoln
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
> The following is from the home page publishers web site.
> "New From Henry Holt
> Killing Lincoln
> The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
> A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding
> the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from
> mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly"
>> This is from the publishes page promoting 'Killing Lincoln.
>>> "A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events
surrounding
> the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from
> mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly
> The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic
> stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever.
> In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally
> comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles.
> President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender
> are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with
> the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society.
But
> one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the
> highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.
> In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John
Wilkes
> Booth—charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham
> Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth
immediately
> becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart
> but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string
of
> clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The
> thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered
> executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S.
> government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable
> figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is
history
> that reads like a thriller. "
>>> Jack didn't look very hard.
>>>> Namaste
>> Jeff Burk
>>>>________________________________
>> From: Jack Lawrence <jlawrence at kc.rr.com>
>>To: GDG <gettysburg at arthes.com>
>>Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2012 4:12 PM
>>Subject: Re: GDG- Killing Lincoln
>>>>Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>>>>>>>>> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>>> At 02:04 PM 1/14/2012, you wrote:
>>>> The correct term is "speculative popular history". Or "Interprative
>>>> History". In the style of bodice rippers.
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>> There is no such categories as the ones you suggest. There is no
bodice
>>> ripping in it. It is not a novel. It is popular history.
>>>>>> Obviously, you have not read the book. I have. I'm not sympathetic to
>>> it, but that does not change what it is.
>>Hello.
>>We can discuss terms, but Holt, the publisher, does not list this as a
>>history book on its site.
>>Maybe I am looking for it wrong. The terms used aere samples of
>>descriptions used for the book, including the publishers site.
>>>>No one, even the publisher, seems to want to call it a history book.
>>>>Regards,
>>>>Jack
>>>>Maybe its an iambic billameter poem?
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